Molded in color models

[Bullitt]

I have 2 kits, a 1969 Yenko Camaro and a 1970-1/2 Camaro Z-28. The Yenko is molded in Yellow & the Z-28 in Orange. Does anyone leave them in the molded colors, with a clear coat?, or do you always primer & repaint?

 

Thanks

[cobraman]

I have seen some guys just polish the plastic and it came out pretty nice. I have never tried it.

[Snake45]

I polish kit colored plastic whenever I can get away with it, just to be different. You can't always get away with it.

On that yellow Revell '69 Camaro, you probably can't get away with it because the plastic is so thin that when you paint the inner areas (such as the headliner) black, it will show through.

The orange '70, you MIGHT get away with it, though I suspect you're going to have the same problem with that. It easy enough to test.

I have a Revell '69 Corvette molded in orange I'm going to try to polish. Gonna go with a tan interior and see if that doesn't show through the outside. We'll see.

[JTalmage]

I don't like the kit plastic showing at all personally because it seems the kits I have that are molded in color always look "swirly" for lack of better terms. 

[MrBuick]

I've seen pictures of other members' kits that they polished the molded color and they looked great. I've tried it on two of mine and had the same issues listed already. One was a Corvette molded in red, and as Snake45 said, the plastic was too thin and it didn't look good. You could see the colors under the body (interior, chassis, engine, etc) in certain lights, and even if you could view it from that certain angle where nothing showed through, it still just looked very plastic. The other one was a Tri-Five molded in black, and it didn't look good, because like JTalmage said, it kind of looked swirly (I think there may have been certain areas that were just ever so slightly thinner, so the "deepness" of the black was different...you could see the flaws no matter how much I polished it (to be fair, it did look okay once it was polished aside from that, so if it weren't for the molding flaws it probably would have come out fine). I know it can be done successfully, and whenever I get a kit that's molded in color and I want it to remain that color, I'll probably still try it first (nothing really to lose but a little time), but so far I've not had any luck.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Depends a lot on the condition & thickness of the plastic.

I got away with it once recently.

I happened to have this '61 Plymouth that was molded in yellow & looked too good to paint.

I still sanded off the mold lines & luckily there were no sink marks to repair.

Polished out the bare plastic & left it alone.

No clear coat required.

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

[62rebel]

if it's a light color and you want to detail paint the inside of the body, shoot a coat or two of light grey or white inside and THEN detail paint headliners, etc... the light color will act as a reflector and won't let the dark details muddle the exterior. That said, I seldom leave a kit in the plastic.... seems like predominately Monogram kits are molded in bright colors, and I seldom build those.

[gtx6970]

  On 3/17/2016 at 8:46 PM, StevenGuthmiller said:

Depends a lot on the condition & thickness of the plastic.

I got away with it once recently.

I happened to have this '61 Plymouth that was molded in yellow & looked too good to paint.

I still sanded off the mold lines & luckily there were no sink marks to repair.

Polished out the bare plastic & left it alone.

No clear coat required.

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet,

I like that one A LOT

can I have it??????? lol

[StevenGuthmiller]

  On 3/18/2016 at 2:25 AM, gtx6970 said:

Sweet,

I like that one A LOT

can I have it??????? lol

Ha ha!

I spent more for this kit than any other kit I've ever bought!

It was basically brand new in the box!

You could say, I spent too much!

 

Steve

[High octane]

I've seen Trophy Series models molded in black and or Grey that were polished out and they looked drop-dead-gorgeous.

[afx]

The finish on this build is just polished plastic.

Edited March 18, 2016 by afx

[Bullitt]

Thanks, what would you suggest I use for polish?

[Pete L.]

  On 3/17/2016 at 8:46 PM, StevenGuthmiller said:

Depends a lot on the condition & thickness of the plastic.

I got away with it once recently.

I happened to have this '61 Plymouth that was molded in yellow & looked too good to paint.

I still sanded off the mold lines & luckily there were no sink marks to repair.

Polished out the bare plastic & left it alone.

No clear coat required.

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

Steve,

 I too build kits and leave them in the molded colors...your Plymouth is STUNNING and carries the practice to new heights !!!!

Pete L.

[Pete L.]

Folks,

 Two examples of polished plastic instead of paint, building kits like this remind me of my "yoot" !   I'll have to say however that in my estimation the earlier releases, particularly Monogram and to some extent AMT kits, were of much higher quality plastic. I also feel that the molds were polished to such degree that the resulting parts were very smooth and actually "glossy".

 I like to use TURTLEWAX for polishing the plastic, the old stuff that actually had a very mild abrasive in it and NOT INTENDED for clear coated finishes.

 

Pete L.

Edited March 18, 2016 by Pete L.

[Pete L.]

  On 3/18/2016 at 11:08 AM, afx said:

The finish on this build is just polished plastic.

JC.

 That has got to be the best FORD GT build I've ever seen, beautiful !!!  It looks like a 1:1 scale car...

[afx]

  On 3/18/2016 at 1:20 PM, Pete L. said:

JC.

 That has got to be the best FORD GT build I've ever seen, beautiful !!!  It looks like a 1:1 scale car...

Thanks Pete.  This car is currently being restored to it as raced spec. I am very interested to see what color wheels they install.  A lot of builds have the wheels painted a gold color.  I followed the kit instructions and painted the wheel centers gunmetal.  The Halibrand wheels had a pretty broad color range so I think either would be correct.

I really like your "Little Deuce".

[disabled modeler]

I build some and just polish the plastic out well myself...get good results with it too.  Automotive polishes work ok for this just using a very little at a time it goes a long way on plastic and looks great with a bit of work.

[Snake45]

  On 3/18/2016 at 12:49 PM, Bullitt said:

Thanks, what would you suggest I use for polish?

I use Wright's Silver Cream, available in the housecleaning stuff aisle at Walmart (and other places, too). It's cheap, works on both paint and plastic, and a tub will last a long time. Works at least as well as much more expensive "dedicated" hobby/plastic polishes.

[Pete L.]

  On 3/18/2016 at 1:35 PM, afx said:

Thanks Pete.  This car is currently being restored to it as raced spec. I am very interested to see what color wheels they install.  A lot of builds have the wheels painted a gold color.  I followed the kit instructions and painted the wheel centers gunmetal.  The Halibrand wheels had a pretty broad color range so I think either would be correct.

I really like your "Little Deuce".

JC,

 Thank you for the kind words sir !

Pete L.

[my66s55]

I don't polish a model if I like the molded color, I apply a nice coat of future.

[Pete L.]

Doug,

 Really nice builds, I don't trust myself with the FUTURE application just yet but I'll be giving the method a try soon. Thanks for sharing the photos !

 

Pete L.